Weekly Bravo Cocktail Party: January 29th

Watching the OC reunion was like watching everything about 2020 that I’m very happy to leave behind, except for Gina, who was a real revelation this season. She will definitely be getting an invite to the Bravo cocktail party this week, the other ladies, not so much. How I went from despising her to saluting her, I’m not exactly sure, but I think it’s because she was reasonable, optimistic and finally dealt with her terrible hair. Yay for Gina! Meanwhile, the Southern Charm reunion was the best episode of the season. I loved seeing everyone confront each other about the behind the scenes gossip. Also, Shep wrote a book??

On Dallas, we saw the ladies nursing their hangovers after Kary’s birthday party, except for Tiffany, who was at home getting certified in CPR and being a very cute mom with her kids, and Stephanie, who did some mother-daughter bonding of her own, as she and her mom attempted to paint her new foundation office to prove to Travis that she was self-sufficient. I’m hoping that next week, we get to see if he’s impressed by her efforts or not. Their dynamic is interesting to me-on the one hand, it’s clear that they love each other very much, on the other hand, they have very 1950’s roles in their relationship and that seems to be chaffing at her. I wish she had done a little more for her office than move one sad desk and chair and paint the walls-maybe some art and a rug and a few more piece of furniture would have given it more of a wow factor?

Then the ladies head off to celebrate Brandi’s birthday, and Kary becomes exactly the kind of monster that Leann was last season, which is ironic since she spent all of last season complaining about LeAnne. There’s a similar issue on Salt Lake City where Jen Shah is dominating the entire episode/season with her tantrums. It’s hard when one lady takes over all the drama and kills the fun. I love the silly, quieter moments in housewives, and watching one woman dominate the group so completely gets old pretty quickly. I enjoy the calmer craziness of people like Lisa and Meredith or Kameron, and I know that we need some Kary or Jen types to keep the drama flowing, but when that gets out of whack, it can also be toxic to any fun vibe for the rest of the ladies. I’ve heard rumors that Jen isn’t coming back next year, but nothing seems certain except that season 2 of RHOSLC has been given the green light. I know that Jen and Kary won’t be getting an invite to drinks at my house this week, but let’s see how everything else shook out.

Photo by Bravo. Dr. Tiffany Moon is bringing a lot of opinions to this season of Dallas!

Who Didn’t Make the Guest List:

Kelly and Braunwyn: Watching these two try to communicate with each other was painful. It will be interesting to see if one or both of them get the boot for next year. It’s so hard to tell what they’re going to do on the OC because their casting never makes sense to me. I’d love to get back to the days of Heather Dubrow and Detective Megan.

Craig: You can’t call people trash. Seriously, don’t do it.

Kary: She spent last season calling LeAnne out for being a bully and being rude, and I loved that, but she has spent this season bringing down the group fun by bossing Tiffany around and criticizing D’Andra. For someone who claims to be the life of the party, she doesn’t seem to very good creating a fun vibe!

Kameron: She seems to be teaming up with Kary and enabling her bad behavior, which seems to be very similar to how she was with LeeAnne in previous seasons. She was able to stand up to LeeAnne at the end of last season, and I hope that she’s able to do the same with Kary-Kam’s so much more fun on her own than as second fiddle to an alpha type.

Jen: Wow, she really went off the deep end and couldn’t read the room in this episode. She’s her own worst problem and the other ladies have tried to tell her that, but she just isn’t able to understand, which was so exemplified in her freak out at dinner. Can she see the difference between the way that Meredith handled hearing the Jen has been talking about her and the way that she handled hearing the Lisa and Meredith have (allegedly) been talking about her? Also, when people want to commit to the narrative that “Someone is LYING” it seems very junior high to me. It seems clear to me that Meredith and Lisa said something to Mary, which Mary interpreted as them being afraid of Jen, but wasn’t the exact language they used. That’s the way conversations work, people interpret what other people say and sometimes that gets filtered through their perspective. The housewife allegiance to exact wording can be exhausting, especially to someone like me, who has a terrible vague memory and can never remember what I’ve said or what anyone else has said verbatim. I would fail epically in that situation.

Austen: When Madison told him to shut his muppet mouth, I laughed out loud and then felt bad. Everyone else is bringing it to this reunion, and he’s still playing the victim and clearly didn’t practice any biting comebacks. He’s just not good at arguing or having a quippy comeback and ends up looking weak.

Photo by Bravo. Yay for Craig’s hair! Not so much for him calling Madison trash. When will Bravo stars learn that’s never a good idea?

Who Made the Guest List:

Shep and Craig’s hair: I’m into their shaggy locks on the reunion! Also, their plaid jackets. What does that say about me? Actually, I’m liking everyone’s looks except for Kathryn’s hair color.

Danni: She made it a full chair at the reunion!

Madison: She seems like she’s kind of a terrible person, but she’s so good at taking people down in an argument.

Heather: I can’t wait to watch the reunion and see if she’s still so loyal to Jen. Even when they were recapping the evening up in Whitney’s room after Jen’s meltdown, she managed to express her disapproval of Jen’s behavior while still trying to support her. It was amazing to me that she could tell Jen to her face that Jen was in the wrong and Jen couldn’t hear it. May we all be blessed with a friend that’s as loyal and level headed as Heather-she really is the best.

Meredith: I feel like we learned more about Meredith in this episode than we did in the rest of the season! Hearing about her childhood and how it made her unable to tolerate drama or having some push or guilt her into something shed a lot of light on her choices to not “engage.” Then she opened up about her relationship with her husband and confronted Jen about the fact that she’s heard Jen’s been talking about her. I was impressed with how smoothly she handled all of it!

Lisa: I know some people really don’t like Lisa, but her voice is so entertaining to me, and I think she’s actually pretty fun in her deadpan, judgmental way.

Gina: She really did have the best season so far on the OC. It was nice to see her happy and in a relationship with a nice guy. She was also able to sift through the very different kinds of crazy that were coming out Braunwyn and Kelly’s mouths and to try to find some kind of common ground with them, while also rolling her eyes at the insane things that they said. She seems like the least self-centered person in that cast, and I think that’s why she’s the only person that everyone can get along with!

Stephanie: She’s trying her best to stand up for herself this season and to create this foundation, which considering her social services background and the fact that she’s one of the wealthiest housewives out there, is a great thing. A few seasons ago, when Travis bought that insane house at auction without telling her, I couldn’t understand why she would stay married to him. I mean, that was crazy, right? I can see how much they love each other, but I also think that trying to get Travis to respect her is going to take more than painting a room. I’m rooting for her, though, and her sweet mother!

Tiffany: My whole life, I have wanted nothing more than to be able to wear a cute matching gingham outfit like Tiffany wore on the road trip. I salute how cute she looked in it because that is no small achievement. I also loved when she was horrified by the ladies on the stripper pole and wondered when she would have time to learn to dance for money.